Air-gun



(No Model.)

W. P. MARKHAM.

AIR GUN.4 No. 557,849. Patented Apr. 7, 1896.

L/ 7F E 0 AN DREW aGRMAM. PHOTUUTHQWASHINGmN D C UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.v

lVILLIAM F. MARKHAM, OF PLYMOUTH, MICHIGAN.

AIR-GUN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,849, dated April 7, 1896.

Application tiled January Z8, 1896. Serial No. 577,129. (No model.)

To all whom t indy conce-Mz:

Beitknown that I, WILLIAM F. MARKHAu, a citizen of t-he United States, residing at Plymouth, in the county of lVayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Air-Guns, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention consists in the construction of an air-gun comprising` a magazine device for controlling the exit of a shot therefrom, a holding device at the muzzle of the gun for holding the shot until the gun is righted and when so righted permit it to fall into the barrel in the well-known manner of loading a muzzle-loading gun.

The invention further consists in the peculiar construction, arrangement, and combination of the various parts, all as more fully hereinafter described.

In the drawings I have deemed it necessary to show the muzzle of the gun without showing the mea-ns for retracting the piston and the means for actuating the same nor the other well-known parts of such gun, as my device may be applied to any type of air-gun.

Figure lis a vertical central section through the barrel of an air-gun and showing only the muzzle portion thereof, illustrating my invention. Fig. 2 is a similar section showing the trigger or valve in position to allow a single shot to fall into the auxiliary holding device. Fig. 3 isa sectional perspective view illustrating the manner in which a shot is delivered from the holding device into the barrel. Fig. et is a section on line :c .,r, Fig. 2.

The barrel may be constructed substantially as shown in my Patent No. 473,633, dated April 2G, lSl-that is, comprising a false barrel A, a true barrel B, and a block or iilling between the two, preferably of wood.

The true barrel at its lower end has a s uitable seat D, so constructed that as the ball falls into it from the muzzle in end loading or from the magazine in the manner described it will hold it with sufficient firmness to prevent its accidental displacement.

In the previous construction of such device it has been customary to effect a loading through the side of a true barrel, which necessitated some means of closing -this feedaperture. My present construction feeds from the mechanism directly into the mouth of the barrel, thereby preventing any necessity of such valve and making the gun shoot with the desired accuracy and strength and without any danger of leakage of the air through side ports or openings. To this end the construction which I prefer is that shown in the drawings, in which the block C is cut away more or less at the forward end to form the annular magazine E.

The true ba-rrel B is made slightly shorter than the false barrel, and the auxiliary loading device for the shot is so constructed that when released the shot will fall therein and be held until the gun is righted, when they will fall into the mouth of the true barrel and lodge in the sea-t at the lower end thereof in the well-known manner of such guns.

The construction which I prefer comprises a cap F, secured in any desired manner at the end of the barrel and having the central port or opening G in line with the true barrel but beyond the same. The upper face H of this cap is concave, as plainly shown in Fig. l, so that anything resting on it in the upright position of the gun will tend to roll into the port G and thence into the barrel.

I is a ring-shaped flange secured to the cap around the port G, and so constructed as to leave a free ingress or egress of the shot in or out of the true barrel in shooting or in unloading. The inner edge of this ange is preferably bent in slightly, so as to form a concave runway J substantially parallel to the face H of the cap.

K is a port or aperture through the cap F communicating with the interior of the magazine, and this is controlled by a trigger or valve L, preferably formed of a single piece of wire, extending across that port, as shown in Fig. l, and coiled around the inside of the IOO being then closed and the gun reversed in position to the upright, as shown in Fig. 3, the shot Will run down the concave face II in the mouth of the barrel and lodge in the seat, as described. This construction is not only exceptionally simple but may be attached to any ordinary make of air-gun to convert the usual muzzle-loading gun into a magazinegun.

The magazine may be lled in any desired manner. I have shown a Cap O in the side of the false barrel Which maybe removed for this purpose.

That I claim as my invention is l. In an air-gun, the combination with the true barrel, of a magazine having its discharge adjacent to the muzzle of the barrel, means for controlling the exit from the magazine, and a temporary holder for the shot to be loaded, constructed to deliver the shot into the muzzle of the barrel.

2. In an air-gun, the combination with the true barrel, of a magazine having its discharge ad j aoent to the muzzle of the barrel, a trigger or valve to control the exit of the shot, a Hange over the exit adapted to hold the ball in the inverted position of the gun after its delivery from the magazine, and means for guiding the ball into the muzzle on righting the gun.

3. In an air-gun, the Combination With the true and false barrels, and an interposed Chamber forming a magazine, of a Cap for the false barrel beyond the end of the true barrel having a convex face, an aperture from the magazine through this cap, a trigger to control the aperture and a Circular curved flange over the cap, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

XVILLIAM F. MARKHAM.

Vitnesses:

M. B. ODOGHERTY, O. F. BARTHEL. 

